Virtual variety… Sunday Night at the Lockdown Palladium

Inspired by The Spirit of Brucie and The Tarby of Palladium's Past, a group of intrepid performers have joined forces to provide us with Lockdown laughter and self-isolated smiles. Using the wonders of modern invention coupled with actual magic (and let no one tell me otherwise!) these intrepid internet entertainers have been illuminating our living rooms over the past six weeks with a mix of comedy, songs, prestidigitation, performance and the ever-ready ukulele of Mr Chris Larner.

This week was the first we’d watched and it felt like a mini-holiday for the locked-down soul; a well-oiled machine witnessed by an increasingly well-oiled reviewer and people from all round the Globe; Los Angeles, Barcelona, Canada, Ireland and wherever it is that Mr Larner lives!

Jeremy Stockwell

Our compere was the esteemed philosophical entertainer Mr Jeremy Stockwell, who, splendidly attired for the occasion in velvet jacket, bow tie and fedora, gave a warm welcome to the virtual VIPs and announced his cast of all the talents! Did I mention how well-oiled things are? Very. That’s what they are!

First up was the One-Woman Company known to the world as Kate Perry (no, not that one) who I last saw in the mind-boggling Very Perry Show. This time she had brought just one of her many inhabiting characters, in this case Bridgit, a six-year old who asks too many questions and gets all the wrong answers. Katy disappears so much into her comedy characters that all that remains is the enthusiastic child looking forward to “jumpy castles”! She’s a marvel and we tapped out our vigorous applause on the chat stream to the right of stage.

Kate Perry

Tonight if there was not just magic in the air then it was certainly on the cards and in the hands of Hugh Levinson who performed a series of seemingly impossible shuffles in front of our very eyes: we were lost in legerdemain! How he does it I don’t know and as member of the Magic Circle he will never tell but we were lost in consideration of the seeming impossible: that’s prestige!

Hugh Levinson

This was followed by the verbally dexterous and emotionally nuanced actor, Robert Mountford a man who has trod the boards of the RSC, NT and BBC and who simply took our breath away with a reading of feeling and intensity. Remaining in character throughout he feigned disappointment over the fiscal reward offered by this Palladium, knowing full well that we expected that he’d be off to stay at Mark Rylance’s pied a terre to catch up on who wrote what, way back when.

Robert Mountford

Some men are born great and others have ukuleles thrown upon them. So, it was with Chris Larner who literally sang the greens with a song about the Onion at the End which was both a moving social commentary and as well as a meditation on the sadness of vegetables.

Finally, it was time for a tutu and a performance infused with such cultural depth the stage at Covent Garden would struggle to support it.  This was the legendary prima ballerina Madam Galina - Iestyn Edwards who entertained us thoroughly spinning athletically from her kitchen and then telling us of time spent trying to fit in with marines in tanks in Iraq or, fitting into tanks with said soldiers? It was fraught and when Galina lapsed into Iestyn a wonderful baritone was revealed!

Madam Galina

IThankYouTheatre Rating: ***** It was lovely to see professional performers again and this was a funny and intimate way of seeing these top-notch artistes!! There are two more episodes to go and I would urge you all to join in.

Set your Zooms for the heart of the fun!

Next Sunday, 7.30, info and invite from Jeremy Stockwell on Twitter.

There’s also a Go Fund Me page to help cover costs and help support these guys when they’re between physical gigs. It’s the least we can do to thank them for re-opening the door on to a world we used to almost take for granted.

Support the arts and stay at home (even you Dom…)!

Chris Larner and his instrument.

No rehearsal… The Understudy, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Online

Theatrical experience came to a shuddering halt for all of us in March and it’s a delight to be able to listen – if not see – a new play especially one that is a call to seize the moment, whenever that may come, as well as in aid of the theatrical community. Henry Filloux-Bennett’s adaptation of David Nicholl’s comic novel, is being produced by the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield and all proceeds will be split between Acting For Others, the Equity Charitable Trust, Equity’s Benevolent Fund and The Theatre Development Trust, run by the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre.

Everyone with an interest in the survival of theatre through the Covid crisis should support this initiative but in doing so I can also guarantee them not only a good laugh but also an endless stream of wry smiles as our hero, perpetual understudy Stephen, waits in the wings for Life’s big break.

Nicholl was once a struggling actor himself before he found his feet as the writer of One Day and Starter for Ten, his characters have always mixed humility, emotional frailty and hopeless hope. As played by the limitlessly versatile Russell Tovey, Stephen – Steve – McQueen (no, not that one), is another character fuelled by unreasoned optimism despite his repeated failures.

These sudden reversals of fortune just don’t happen. Yes, they do…

Already 32, Stephen has one failed marriage behind him, with ex, Alison (super Sarah Hadland) still trying to get him on the right path. Alison has a career as a recruitment consultant and a new man, banker Colin, who comes complete with an Edwardian detached in Chiswick. Even daughter Sophie is moving on at her new private school and, exams approaching, tells her Dad she’d rather go home after pizza rather than to the zoo; et tu Sophie?!

But Steve’s big break could only be a break away, or even just a minor illness for the man he is due to understudy. He’s been “cast” as support for new acting superstar, and World’s 12^th Sexiest Man, Josh Harper (Jake Ferretti) in a west end play called Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, about Lord Byron of course which, surely, someone now needs to produce once things get back to the old normal?

Steve also has a small part, opening the door beyond this mortal plane at the end of the play but even this proves his lack of acting instinct as he struggles to summon sufficient portend as Death the Doorman in rehearsals. Still, he knows the part and hopes he’ll get the chance to take over for a performance and realize his dream of overnight success…

Meanwhile, Steve is getting on rather well with Josh’s dissatisfied and sassy wife, Nora (Sheila Atim) – another understudy in waiting. Josh is faithless, over-confident and yet, still in love with Nora but this doesn’t stop him having an affair with co-star Maxine (Emily Attak)… underneath it all he can’t quite believe his luck and Jake Ferretti does well in portraying this conflicted nature.

All is thereby set up for a journey into probability theory and who else to guide us than Stephen Fry who acts as a one-man Greek chorus uttering lines that would have made Douglas Adams smile; “A great deal is made of the deals we make…”

Radio plays leave so much room for the imagination as we provide our own art direction as well as lighting but the actors need to perform more vocally than they’re used to – as with silent film, this means adjusting the focus. This is an opportunity well seized and clearly, despite the remoteness of the production, there’s a good chemistry at play and the narrative is seamless.

Much credit should go to Director Giles Croft as well as the sound and design team of Alexandra Faye Braithwaite, Annie May Fletcher and Sophie Galpin.

IThankYou Theatre rating: **** + * for the good cause!

The Understudy is a play for the underdog and it’s also a play for the undying spirit of the unfeasibly optimistic. It’s also very funny so click on the link below and enjoy!

The play is being released in two parts: part 1 will be released on Wednesday 20 May and part 2 will be released on Wednesday 27 May. You only need one ticket to access both parts of the play. You can watch the play for up to 1 month following the release dates of part 1 and part 2.

The link is here.